Student profile: Alizée Currell

I’m vising the Global Opportunities GO Abroad Fair today to find out about what overseas opportunities are available to me at Queen Mary that I wouldn’t be able to experience just from studying in the UK for three years. I’ve always been interested in studying abroad, so when I was applying to universities this was one of the criteria I looked for. I know family friends who have been on a year abroad, and my cousin also went to Washington D.C. for a year and she said it was amazing.

It will be interesting to see how the experience overseas differs academically from the UK, but I’m also excited to experience life in another country and all that this entails. I’d love to go to Australia, so I guess that raises some concerns around the distance from home. If there was an emergency and I’m over 24 hours away by plane then that could be difficult. You don’t have the safety net of being in the same country as your family or friends, and you can’t just pop home for the weekend if you’re on the other side of the world. Having said that, I imagine that my confidence would improve a lot, learning to live in another culture and discovering their way of life, and having to deal with the challenges that present themselves.

In all honesty, I’m more excited than anything else. I’m hoping to go into film production after I graduate, so it would be great to get experience of how the industry works elsewhere which should stand me in good stead when it comes to applying for jobs. For me, this experience is mainly about immersing myself in another culture and growing from that.